Jan. 8, 2013
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The Social Media Center at CES features a wall of data. / Mary Nahorniak, USA TODAY

by Mary Nahorniak, USA TODAY

by Mary Nahorniak, USA TODAY

The wall at the social media "command center" at the International CES is a revolving screen of key tweets, celebrity rankings and popular locations, all related to the electronics conference. On Tuesday, as the show floor opened, the wall illustrated what was clear from the crowds outside the booth: that the Las Vegas Convention Center was the most popular place to be.

The center is powered by the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, a combination of Salesforce, Radian6 and Buddy Media platforms to scan and filter the social web, and Salesforce and CES staff are actively monitoring the conversation surrounding the conference.

Tina Anthony, senior manager for social media for CES, manages the show's official social platforms and uses the center to observe and engage. She's part of a communications team that uses Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn and Instagram to answer questions and provide information about the show.

She said that behind-the-scenes content had been particularly popular, including a "helmet cam" GoPro video of the show's setup. The show's official Twitter account, @IntlCES, is a stream of live updates from events, photos and conversation, and it uses an engaging voice to connect with users.

"We try to be their pal and lead them through the show and try to infuse as much personality as possible," Anthony said. That can include Instagramming pictures of delicious-looking hamburgers, and retweeting on Twitter with fun responses. For example, the official account tweeted "we cut a deal w/ the weather," and "hugs are tempting" in response to someone who tweeted they'd pay in hugs to attend CES.

In response to a tweet about being anti-social, the @IntlCES account responded, "We don't understand that term."

On Tuesday, data flowing through the command center showed a variety of information about the conference, including that TVs topped trending products, with more than 31,000 mentions across social media and the web, followed by smartphones and apps. The top brands at CES by mention across 500 sources on social media and the web were Samsung, LG, Google, Sony and Apple.

"Madison Avenue has come to Las Vegas to see what consumers are actually doing," said Michael Peachey, senior director for solutions marketing for salesforce.com. At a trade show as large as CES, where brands come to connect with consumers, social media is a natural fit, Peachey said.

"We're here to help those customers engage with their customers," Peachey said.

The proof is in the (social) pudding: The command center's wall already showed 3.4 million CES-related mentions on the social web, compared with 1.4 million last year -- and that was only on the show's first official day this year. And in a tag cloud of words related to the show, the word "Facebook" was prominently displayed.